Panic
by Akatsuki Child
Summary: Set during Son of Neptune. Nico's POV when he sees Percy at Camp Jupiter. Upon seeing Percy again, Nico felt panic flash through him, not just from the danger of exposing his secret plans, but from also seeing his crush once again. Nico-centric, hints of Nico x Percy.
1. Part 1

**So this was something I kind of thought of when I re-read the part in Son of Neptune when Nico and Percy meet when Percy arrives at Camp Jupiter. While I was reading it, I couldn't help but think, My God, it must have been excruciating for Nico to stand there in front of his crush, who didn't even remember him or anything that they'd been through together. Because of that, I wanted to write a little piece about what Nico may have been thinking at the time. I hope you like it! Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or any quotes used from Son of Neptune! They belong to Rick!**

* * *

Nico knew 100% that he was way in over his head.

It was hard enough, being at Camp Half-Blood, knowing that the Romans existed but not being able to say anything. Just as well, it was difficult to be around the Romans and keep the Greeks' existence a secret, and he especially had to watch out for his snooping half-sister. To make things worse, there were certain things that needed to happen, and only he knew about these things. He had to keep his secrets in order to ensure the eventual alliance between the Greek and Roman camps.

He was only fifteen, for gods' sake. Not to mention, being a son of Hades— _Pluto_ , whatever—people didn't exactly trust him at either camp, which only made his job that much more difficult.

And then, to make matters worse, Percy Jackson showed up at Camp Jupiter.

Of course, Nico expected it—counting on it, even. It was all part of the plan to bring the two camps together. Still, Nico believed that he wouldn't have to see his crush. He believed he could keep going about his business and deal with Percy indirectly.

But of course, that didn't happen.

Nico stood outside by a shrine built to his and Hazel's father. He was waiting for Hazel. He needed to talk to her about some things, and as per usual, he didn't like sticking around for too long. He was afraid that if he became too comfortable here, he would spill something he wasn't supposed to.

He finally heard Hazel's voice floating towards him and he heard her call his name. He turned towards her but immediately froze. His eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights and he felt a major flash of shock and panic pass through him.

Percy Jackson stood before him, his mop of dark hair messy as always, his sea green eyes bright, causing Nico's heart to stutter. Seeing his crush standing before him sent his pulse racing. Adrenaline coursed through his veins. He watched as Percy's brows furrowed, his eyes darting across Nico's face. It was obvious Percy was trying to remember where he'd seen him from.

"This is Percy Jackson," Hazel said. "He's a good guy."

As Hazel introduced the two demigods, Nico quickly regained his composure, trying to steel his expression into one of indifference.

He held out his hand, willing it not to shake. "Pleased to meet you," he replied politely. His voice sounded a bit weak to his ears. "I'm Nico di Angelo."

Nico tried to look friendly and, for the most part, inviting, but that was hard to do when you were standing before your crush, only he didn't _know_ that and _couldn't_ know that.

Instead, his expression came off as more of a grimace, his stance wary. He could tell Percy felt the same way, especially when he scowled and said, "I—I know you."

Nico felt his heart jump in his throat. He felt about a thousand different emotions at that point, but he swallowed them down and feigned incredulity. Raising his eyebrows, he asked, "Do you?"

He turned to Hazel, his heart beating hard in his chest. He was starting to panic a bit. There was a silent plea in his look he sent her— _help_.

However, one look at his sister and he knew he was fucked. Hazel was scrutinizing him, a confused expression on her face. Eventually, she began explaining about his memory loss, and Nico felt his stomach flip in relief.

It was short-lived.

She asked if he'd seen other demigods like Percy, and he immediately sent her a dark, sideways glare. She must have caught the _Drop it_ message because she quickly clammed up.

Nico switched the subject to his main priority. He asked about Gaea's army and whether Percy had warned Reyna. They started talking about the previous war against Kronos, and at the mention of it, Nico could see Percy struggling again, trying to remember a memory he couldn't quite find.

It hurt Nico. It made him ache, seeing his crush in such a struggle. Especially knowing that he could easily put him out of his misery. But doing that would ruin everything.

What made it harder was that they had history together. Surely not the best or the most trustful, but they _knew_ each other. He'd helped Percy win the Titan war, for gods' sake! It was difficult for Nico to stand there before Percy, acting like they were just meeting, like none of that happened. Like none of that mattered.

But it did matter, and it _killed_ him.

Despite his anguish, Nico answered Percy's questions as best as he could without revealing anything too incriminating. Eventually, Frank Zhang joined them by Pluto's shrine, and Nico encouraged him to take Percy to the dining hall so that he could talk to Hazel in private. Nico's heart ached at the thought of leaving Percy, but he pushed it aside. This was for the greater good.

Before they left, though, Percy stared Nico down. "I'd like to talk with you some more. I can't shake the feeling—"

"Sure," Nico agreed quickly. His heart jumped in his throat. His knees became weak. It felt like his insides were made of jelly. "Later. I'll be staying overnight."

He gave Frank a nod and forced himself away from Percy, tugging his sister toward the roof of the shrine. It pained him to walk away. He wanted so badly to just reach out and touch him, or to tell him everything and spill that they had known each other for years now.

He sighed to himself, feeling his stomach drop to the ground. He hoped Percy got his memory back soon, because he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle this for very long.

* * *

 **I originally planned to write more, but when I re-read what I had written, this seemed like a good place to stop. However, I will probably end up writing a second part and adding it on sometime soon.**

 **Thanks for reading and please review and let me know what you think!**

 **-AC**


	2. Part 2

**All right, here's part 2. I'm going to write a part 3 and then that will be it! This one doesn't have any Percy-Nico interaction, but instead Nico thinking on his past and his dealings with Percy. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: As always, all characters and the quotes from Son of Neptune are NOT mine and belong to Rick Riordan!**

* * *

"You know him, don't you."

Nico and Hazel lounged on the rooftop of their father's shrine. Hazel's words rang through Nico's head, pounding through him with a peculiar pain. Her words were true—Nico knew Percy. But Percy didn't know him. At least, Percy didn't _remember_ him. But Nico saw the struggle in Percy's eyes when he tried to remember where they'd met before.

He swung his feet off the ledge of the roof, his dark sword lying by his side. He gazed across the fields, unseeing. "Percy Jackson…" he spoke, the name rolling off his tongue. He felt a surge of pleasure, saying his name, knowing he was only a short distance away. "Hazel, I have to be careful what I say. Important things are at work here. Some secrets need to stay secret."

"But he's not like…like me?"

Nico shook his head. "No. I'm sorry I can't tell you more. I can't interfere. Percy has to find his own way at this camp." He felt a bitter taste in his mouth, a sort of remorse at this realization. He wanted to help Percy—gods, did he want to help him—but as he said, certain things were at play, things way out of his control, and any interference on his part could result in the destruction of the world as they knew it. As much as Nico adored and admired Percy, he wasn't about to screw everything up on some stupid impulse to be with the famed demigod.

"Is he dangerous?" Hazel asked.

Nico bit back a chuckle. Percy Jackson was all kinds of things—comical, trusting, strong, not to mention easy on the eyes—but he was _especially_ dangerous. "Very," Nico replied dryly. "To his enemies. But he's not a threat to Camp Jupiter. You can trust him."

"Like I trust you," she replied bitterly.

Nico, who had been absently twisting his skull ring, felt a flash of anger and annoyance at her remark, causing the ground around them to rumble eerily. Bones on the shrine quivered as if they were coming to life.

Seeing the look of panic flash across Hazel's face, Nico quickly calmed himself down. "Look, I know this is hard," he said. "But you have a second chance. You can make things right."

"Nothing about this is right. If they find out the truth about me—"

"They won't. They'll call a quest soon. They have to. You'll make me proud. Trust me, Bi—"

Nico snapped his mouth shut.

 _Bianca_. That's the name he was going to say. He felt an odd, familiar pain grip his chest, his stomach tightening with sorrow.

He looked away from Hazel, jaw clenched. "I'm sorry."

Hazel didn't acknowledge the slip up. Instead, she began asking about Death, and Alcyoneus' part in everything. Nico answered as best as he could, but his mind was focused on something else. Focused on Bianca. Focused on the time when she was still alive.

That was when he first met Percy Jackson. Percy had saved his and Bianca's lives. He'd been part of the team that had brought them to Camp Half-Blood, introduced them to the life they really belonged to. At the time, Nico had just been a kid interested in a card game. Eleven, maybe twelve. Percy had been fourteen.

At the time, Percy was this sort of… _god_ , to Nico. He was the boy who had saved them! The boy that had brought them into this new life, a life which Nico could only _dream_ about previously. It was fantastic!

A part of Nico thought that maybe his feelings for Percy began developing around this time, though maybe subconsciously. During this time in Nico's life, a lot of things were changing, and maybe he just latched onto someone that seemed to care the most. Someone he could admire. After all, Percy had been there to save them once already. He'd be there again, right?

But of course, that wasn't necessarily the case, and Nico's fantasy world was dismantled the minute Percy Jackson came back from the quest. Without Bianca.

Nico clenched his fist at the memory. He remembered feeling so frustrated, sick to his stomach with grief, and so _angry._ Angry at Bianca for ever going on the quest, angry at life for putting them in this situation instead of letting them continue on together. And _especially_ angry at Percy. For breaking the rules and joining the quest. For allowing Bianca to die. For not protecting her. For lying to him.

Nico had been crushed. He felt that he'd been let down, especially by Percy. He'd never felt such rage, and from it, he had experienced his first power as a son of Hades, creating a fissure in the dining pavilion.

He'd run away after that. For a while, he hated Percy with every fiber of his being. Percy was the reason Bianca was dead. Percy was the reason he was alone now. And because of that, he vowed to take some sort of revenge on him.

Of course, that hadn't worked out so well. He'd eventually seen the error in his ways, and he tried to forgive Percy. He knew, though, that there was no way he could follow the camp blindly.

The camp, its moral, its rules…they had failed him. He would help them, but only if it was the right thing to do. By all means, he didn't want to see camp destroyed. But he couldn't put faith in a system that had let him down. Instead, Nico worked hard to do what was right, to do what was necessary. Unfortunately, those weren't always the same thing.

Like tricking Percy to swim in the River Styx. Okay, so he hadn't really _tricked_ Percy—he could never intentionally lead Percy into danger without knowing the risks—but he was the one to give him the idea. _Because it was necessary._

Maybe that's when Nico started falling hard for Percy. When Nico had given him the option, a dangerous mission of swimming in the River Styx in order to gain Achilles' curse, and Percy had accepted it as a viable option. He'd seen Percy's bravery and courage, his willingness to do what was needed. Surely, Nico admired him.

Whatever the case, fate was cruel to allow Nico to fall for the guy that, ultimately, in his mind, caused him the greatest pain. That pain he felt over Bianca's death was a strong force that still drove Nico on to this day. Except now it was a different type of pain, because thinking of her only made him think of Percy, and how they could never be together.

* * *

Nico shook his head, clearing the depressing thoughts from his mind. He didn't need to think about any of that. He didn't want to remember all the hardships he'd endured—physically, mentally, emotionally. He had bigger things to worry about now.

He sighed heavily, for once feeling like his true age. Sometimes he forgot that he'd actually been born in the mid-1940s. Even though he didn't age while in the casino, and he'd technically been alive during that time, he hadn't actually been _living_ , so sometimes it was too easy to believe he was a kid of this generation.

He turned to Hazel but felt a shock of alarm run through him. She was staring off into the distance, tears running down her cheeks. Diamonds popped up from the roof, surrounding her.

Nico quickly reached over, shaking her shoulders, trying to wake her from her memories. "Hazel!" he called. "Wake up!"

She eventually came to, red eyes landing on Nico's pale form. "You did it again."

"S-sorry," she mumbled.

Nico shook his head. "Don't be. Where were you?"

"My mother's apartment. The day we moved."

Nico nodded. He understood her past, understood what it was like to be part of a different time. And even though their pasts were drastically different, they both shared that same pain that came from tragedy.

Nico reminded her that she needed to get a hold of her memories. He wouldn't be able to save her during a battle if she were ever caught in one. Hazel understood, but she was still nervous.

"I can't go north again," Hazel said. "Nico, if I have to go back to where it happened—"

"You'll be fine," Nico promised. "You'll have friends this time. Percy Jackson—he's got a role to play in this. You can sense that, can't you? He's a good person to have on your side."

And Nico felt the truth of that in every word he spoke. He may not have had the best dealings with Percy, and maybe their history was a little rocky, but Nico trusted Percy with his life.

Nico's fatal flaw was grudges. A part of him maybe still held a grudge against Percy for playing a large part in Bianca's death. Maybe, because of that, he'd never be able to fully forgive Percy. But that didn't keep him from trusting the demigod, because Percy's fatal flaw was his friends. He'd always keep them safe, do anything for them. It was a good flaw to have.

"Where did he come from?" Hazel suddenly asked. "Why do the ghosts call him the Greek?"

Nico felt a flash of panic course through him. His throat went dry, but before he was forced to scramble for an excuse, horns blew from across the fields, signaling that the legionnaires were gathering for roll call.

A pang of relief pulsed through Nico. He swallowed thickly, nodding towards the sound of the horns. "We better get down there. I have a feeling tonight's war games are going to be interesting."

Hazel looked like she wanted to argue, but instead she nodded and began climbing down the roof. Nico sighed heavily, following after her, thoughts wandering to a certain dark-haired, Greek demigod.

His heart skipped a beat.

* * *

 **And there you go! Part 2! I'll write the last installment within a couple days here.**

 **Thanks for reading and review please!**

 **-AC**


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